Using Technology to Communicate with Parents.

How does your school communicate with stakeholders?  How often do you do it?  When is the best time to do it?  All things we've considered at school and questions that we hoped we've answered, but we're always evolving.

Whether it is a detailed newsletter each week or regular updates on Twitter and Facebook, letting your parents' know what is going on in schools is essential in our modern world.

As parents we tend to ask our children what they've done at school when they get home - classic answer "I don't know, I can't remember"  So how do we help parents get their children talking at home about their learning?

Getting the children talking about something they've done in school can help them further understand a concept or to tackle any misconceptions that they've got around a certain subject.

Our world is now a place of instant sharing, instant messaging and instant answers.  We log onto Facebook to find out what our friends are up to, log into Twitter to read the latest news, and use search engines to find out the answer to questions.

So what do we currently use in school?

Facebook Pages and Twitter feeds have been a real hit with the parents in our school. Teachers are taking photographs of children's work, sharing things that are happening in school and posting links to interesting articles.

We have found that the parents are commenting on the photographs and are seeing throughout the day what their children are learning in school.  We've found that the parent's have a way to start a conversation with their children by showing them a picture of their work or work that is going on in the classroom.  Parents are free to comment on pictures and information - it helps to sell your school as well, free advertising!

Experts from around the world.

Using Twitter we've been able to share with the world. We've shared work, thoughts and ideas with experts from theatres, museums and various places we've visited.

David Lawrence: Principle Conductor for The Young Voices Choir

The children love to read these tweets from people they have admired and learned about during their time in school.

Sharing your learning online allows children and parents to get in touch with experts and maybe even tap into some of their expertise.  A real purpose for using technology.

You can read about Children as Publishers rather than Consumers here. 

Using Facebook to share information instantly, during lessons has been a great way to record a learning journey for the children, teachers and parents.

It gives a central place for the children to see their work, gives access to photographs for teachers quickly and allows parents to see what their child has been learning that day.  A conversation, either online, or in the real world has begun.

Your audience is already there. Most, if not ALL your parents will have a FaceBook or Twitter account, why not tap into that communication source?  We're starting to find more parents are reading our weekly news letter on Facebook or Twitter than on our school website. 

E-Saftey

We have carefully thought about the risks of sharing information online and have produced a social media policy (part of the e-safety policy) and completed a risk assessment around the use of the social technology. We will never share a face, a name, or personal information online, just like we wouldn't on our school website.

Sharing a photograph of a piece of work is enough to get the children talking at home and keep parents informed as to what they are learning in school.

Keeping Stakeholders Informed: What else do we do?

Keeping parents up to date with what is going on in school is essential, I cannot stress this enough.  Parents are busy, children are busy, if you want a parent to know something, a termly news letter is not enough anymore.  Schools are incredibly busy places.

Text and Email - Send messages directly to them (avoid the school bag!)

Most schools utilise email and texting services now, we use http://www.teachers2parents.co.uk/  A great way to get a quick, short message to parents.


School iOS and Android App - News Letters on the go

Pear Tree School App - Download

How many schools use a simple app to help parents and children keep in touch with things going on at school?  We decided to invest in a simple RSS Feed based app for our school. 

I used on online WYSIWYG system from http://ibuildapp.com/ 

It is relatively easy to set up and if you pay for a business account (around £170/year) they will even submit it to Android Market and The App Store for you.  You will need an Apple and Google Developer account to do this though - £15 for Google, and £60 for the Apple account. 

I have designed our school app to just 'retrieve' the news letters from our school website via RSS feeds.   Using this model I can publish each class news letter, each week, and it will automatically be available via the school app.  We have links to our Twitter Feed, embedded maps and links to some videos to help showcase the work in our school.

School Website - Everybody has one, right?

Our School Website has been a labour of love for me. I built the whole site using iWeb and will continually add more and more each week.  Have a look - here

It is a great way to showcase your school and I'm always surprised when I visit some school websites to find them with outdated news, dead links and very little information.

Schools spend thousands and thousands buying into a pre-built website and then never update it.  Why?

It is, more often than not, the first port of call for parents and visitors when finding information out about your school.  Parents use our website for newsletters, photographs, our calendar and accessing essential school documents.

Ofsted will look at your school website, they will start to make judgements about your school using the information you provide. Make it easy to use, and a clear representation of the things that happen in your school. We put a link on there for the lead inspector to follow to access key information.

There are loads of links out there detailing what should and shouldn't be on school websites, but ultimately - get it updated and showcase the amazing work that goes on in your school.

Getting it right for your school.

Whatever method you choose, make sure you are consistent with what you do. Sharing information and work has proved very successful at our school. Parents feel as though they know what is going on in each classroom and information is always readily available.

We have some classes sharing more than others via FaceBook and Twitter, but it is beginning to be used more and more throughout the school.  People are beginning to see the advantages it has.

So choose carefully, evaluate what you have done - what worked and what didn't and ask parents for feedback.

Webinar - Pause, Rewind My Teacher: A Flipped Learning Approach

I presented a Webinar on Flipped learning a few weeks ago that is still available to watch online.

I'd like to thank ITS Learning for allowing me to share my research with the world.

You can watch it again on YouTube - here

It was a great experience and I'm hoping to do some more workshops in the future. If you are interested in me coming to your school to present my work on flipped learning please get in touch videosformyclassroom1@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter @chriswaterworth

Flipped Learning: Flipping Primary English and Art Lessons

It's been a few weeks since my last blog; reports and writing a script for The Children's Shakespeare Festival have got in the way of me writing on here. With reports and the script out of the way, I thought it was about time I wrote about my recent adventures with Edmodo and how the children in my Year 3 class have been using it.

We've been using Edmodo for a few months now and it has transformed the way I have approached my classroom.  Using Edmodo in a flipped classroom seems to be the final piece of the puzzle.

So far I have used Edmodo to:

- Set and receive homework

- Create a place for online feedback

- Allow the children to collaborate online

- Share links, videos and photographs

- Communicate with parents

- Share work instantly in the classroom

All this has contributed to a much more organised online classroom. A classroom which the children enjoy learning in.

The image is one of the ways I've begun flipping my classroom for English. I started a while back now flipping my maths lessons and this is really embedded in my classroom. It was time to try something different.

Flipping Primary English and Drama

I started a new topic this term as we've been invited to perform at The New Vic theatre in Stoke as part of the Children's Shakespeare Festival.  A huge opportunity for the children in my class to perform on a real stage with professional lights, sound and stage managers. How could I not do it?

As you can read in my previous post (Online Feedback and Peer Assessment) I planned with the children using Padlet and produced our new learning adventure.  The stage was set for a great final term with the children.

So I began to post parts of Shakespearean text for the children online to get them thinking about their work before they arrived in school.  After I posted the prologue to Romeo and Juliet my iPad started to beep with notifications from the children talking, and sharing thoughts and ideas about the upcoming lesson.

"Why are the families at war at the start of the story?" 

"Who dies in the story, who takes their life?"

Some really great questions posed by the children themselves. Something I could have done in the classroom, but crucially it had already got the children thinking about their upcoming learning. Perfect - the learning had begun.

When the children arrived in the classroom, they had already experienced the Prologue with parents at home, they'd asked questions, thought about language, and answered a few questions of their own.  

I had also posted the 'Do you bite your thumb at me,' scene prior to our drama session. The children had read it and started to learn the lines needed.  A great way for children to learn lines, so I could focus on the delivery and meaning of those lines. Time saved - more chances for effective learning in classroom time.

A great start, but how far could I take this?  

Could I put the entire learning process online?

Online Feedback: What are my next steps?

I decided to try and use the assignment feature that Edmodo has built into it, a really simple way for children to submit homework, for teachers and children to leave feedback. 

This is the homework I set the children. They logged on read what they needed to do, completed their homework and then uploaded back to me via Edmodo.

I had taken an entire unit on Non-Chronological report writing and put it in the hands of the children. We had produced a few reports this term on Aztec, World War II, and Chocolate production, so this was a real test of independence.  

One of the first things I insisted the children do was to post the questions they were going to research online for the whole class to see.  I encouraged them to do this so they could get feedback on their questions from not only me, but possibly from the whole class - that's a huge advantage of using this method for peer assessment, thirty children peer assessing instead of just a learning partner.

The image shows that the children began helping each other pose better questions. One child here pointed out that the 3rd question was quite closed, so maybe they would need to think again.

What developed was the whole class were peer assessing online and supporting each other in the completion of this report.

I encouraged the children to post parts of their reports online for feedback, and the class obliged, they really did. Spell checking, sentence checking, fact checking in some cases!  All the things I had modelled throughout the year in the children's writing books was being done independently, but online.

We did need to work on the type of feedback they were giving at some points. Writing 'Awesome,' or 'I don't agree,' isn't quality feedback. I modelled good practice; post a reaction, but suggest a way that they can improve further.  It began to filter online, the feedback was of much better quality.

Submitting Their Work: Time to Reflect

After a week the children started to 'turn in' their reports online for their feedback. It didn't matter if they hadn't finished, it was a chance to get feedback half way through the report.  Here is an example I sent back to one child in my class.

The children received their feedback and then they acted on it, before finally submitting it again.  

From a 'time saving' point of view, it was great. I didn't need to sit a desk with a pen to do this, I could do it when I wanted to and where I wanted to.  The work would come to me!  No books to carry around.

The whole process was a huge success and the children loved the fact that it was all online and they could get access to it whenever they wanted to, and still can get access to it. It's in their personal Edmodo library.

Back in school I gave the children an opportunity to make any final changes to their work before printing them out for their Learning Journals.  It was now offline and back in the real world. I had presentations happing in one corner when a group of children crowded around a MacBook whilst one of them gave a talk on Shakespeare using the Prezi they'd submitted. A personal favourite of mine from the project.

Flipping an Art Lesson: Online Video Guides.

I wondered, could I flip an art lesson?  Our children have been invited to display their work at Nantwich Art Gallery this summer based around the theme of portraits. We decided to sketch, then paint characters from Romeo and Juliet.  

I began by setting their homework again using the Assignment Tool - I asked the children NOT to submit their homework online this time, but to bring it in.

I found video guides on how to draw the proportions of the face and how to draw eyes, noses and mouths.  The children were to watch the videos, have a go at home, bring in their sketches and, most importantly, think about which part was the most tricky - their personal next steps in learning.

It was great to see the children bringing their sketches from home and you could clearly see that they'd used the videos from the way they'd approached the sketching.  

Again, crucially they could tell me their next steps as they'd tried it at home.  They knew which videos to watch when they got to the classroom the next day. You can watch the videos I used on our school website - Pear Tree Primary School

A couple of the children in my class actually photographed their sketches with their iPads and uploaded them to Edmodo before the lesson.

"I struggled with the eyes a little, so I need to try those again."  A great piece of reflection, but shared online for the whole class to see. 

Another interesting thing happened I wasn't expecting. The parents of the children in my class sent their sketches in as well!  They are proud that their work is on display in our classroom. 

Another example of parents using the learning going on in their children's classroom to further develop their own skills.  

Returning to the real world: The classroom

Back in the classroom the children got the videos out on their iPads and MacBooks, loaded up Edmodo and began focussing on their next steps without any input from me.  I just stood back and watched them independently driving their own learning forward.

I spent more time questioning, helping, guiding and pushing the children, the vast majority of my time had been saved by flipping my classroom.

The children are still using the videos to further develop their sketching skills today during their daily sketching sessions in independent time.  They have even found other guides on how to sketch hands and different versions of sketching the face.

Where do I go from here?

I have plans to start creating a bank of videos for the children to access via a link on our Edmodo site, as they find it hard to locate videos and work from several weeks ago. I'm hoping that there is a way to 'Pin' posts to the top of the page.  Any help?

I'm going to keep flipping more areas of the curriculum for the rest of the year. I've tried PE and Science as well with some good success, particularly the PE sessions when I used a slow motion video of Usain Bolt powering out of the running blocks to help generate success criteria for a good start to a sprint. When the lesson began the children could model how to begin the race - again time saved.

Webinar - Pause, Rewind My Teacher: A Flipped Learning Approach

I presented a Webinar on Flipped learning a few weeks ago that is still available to watch online.

I'd like to thank ITS Learning for allowing me to share my research with the world.

You can watch it again on YouTube - here

It was a great experience and I'm hoping to do some more workshops in the future. If you are interested in me coming to your school to present my work on flipped learning please get in touch videosformyclassroom1@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter @chriswaterworth

Technology is a tool to be used, not a learning outcome.

Do we buy technology in schools without questioning why?

How many times have you been amazed by a piece of technology? If you're like me, then quite often!  I love technology, I love the way it has changed the way I work, how it has inspired me and how it has enabled me to publish things I never thought possible 10 years ago.

Now, let's look at the children in my class, the digital natives.  The technology has always been there, they've never been in a classroom without an interactive whiteboard, laptops, iPads or a projector whirring away in the background.  But how much of this technology has been used to improve their learning outcomes?

Use Technology more effectively in the classroom.

Using technology in the classroom needs a complete change in mindset and rethink of your approach to children's learning.

Technology is a tool to be used, not a learning outcome.

I cannot stress this point enough to colleagues at school, on Twitter, parents and even the children themselves.  Why are you using the technology?

Why are you using technology in the classroom?

As I stated before, I am a huge fan of technology, but it doesn't mean I use it in every learning experience.  There needs to be a very valid reason to be using technology and an outcome that has benefitted from it at the end.  If I can use a pen and pencil to make notes, do I really need Evernote?  I've found it is hard to break old habits when you have not been surrounded by technology all your life.  Our children tend not to have this difficulty.

Whenever I sit down to plan, like anybody else, I start with the outcome. The children in our school are encouraged to work in a very cross-curricular way, working on projects until a final outcome is reached after self and peer assessing to improve. I'm currently trailing this online using Edmodo - you can read about it here Online Peer Assessment 

We have begun asking the children to choose what format they wish to publish their work in, a reaction to a topic or unit of work if you like. They can write a poem, a report, film something etc. Their choice.  I've seen something quite remarkable, the children will only choose technology when they feel the project needs it.  If a written report works, then they'll do that, if they want to present something they have filmed or just presented in front of the class.  Believe it or not, not ALL children prefer to use an iPad or a MacBook to publish their work.

Looking at the image on the right shows how we need to think more carefully about why we are using technology.  I still come across teachers who will say "I need to make a video, I haven't done any ICT for a while." My answer is always the same, "Why do you need technology? Can you reach the same outstanding outcome without it?"

The most common answer is that, "Well, I haven't done any for a while." Does this mean that we are giving the children a broad and balanced curriculum when we are finding holes in things we haven't taught them yet.  I'd like to think we are further on in our classrooms than ticking boxes on QCA documents. Maybe not?  Ticking boxes tends to lead to surface learning, not deep learning.

The internet is awash with people encouraging teachers to use QR Codes, Augmented Reality, eBooks, and how everybody must learn how to programme! It instills panic in some people and they react to it without thinking how this new technology can improve the learning experience in their classrooms.

What then happens is you try it for a week (or once) and then stop doing it because it became too much work or the children didn't respond well to it.  You haven't thought deep enough about the outcome and why you're doing this.  You've reacted - "oh this looks cool!"  Ok, at least you've tried something new, engaged the children for a moment, but have you really improved the outcomes in your class? 

Start with an outcome and then work backwards.

We must not lose site of the end product, force ourselves to use the technology because you feel that you must; when actually the technology is slowing the process and is detrimental to the outcome.  Technology is great for engaging children, but if they don't see a point in using it, the outcome will usually suffer. 

I use Padlet in my classroom, a really great way to collaborate online, share pictures, web links and much more. I was once told that this would have made a great lesson. Have I used it IN a lesson? No. I haven't used it because it wouldn't have been as effective IN the classroom. It needed the children to be AWAY from the classroom for it to be successful.

Padlet: A great way to collaborate online.

I used Padlet over the Easter break to gather information about William Shakespeare to aid my planning. The children followed a link and shared facts and information.

This could have been done with a sheet of paper IN the classroom and still have been as effective, but the children were not IN the classroom, they were  all at home.

I used the technology more effectively because I thought about why it would work better. I could have sent a sheet of paper home, then collated the information at a later date, but using Padlet enhanced the process and outcome.  

Using this technology helped me as well.  I didn't need to wait for the children to arrive back at school to plan their next learning adventure, I gained two weeks of planning and preparation time - great time management on my behalf.  And from a flipped learning point of view, the children were gathering knowledge and understanding outside the classroom so we didn't need to cover as much IN class.

Keeping up with the Joneses.

Schools tend to do this a lot.  They go and visit a school and then cherry pick the technology that they've seen. "Well they've got 1:1 iPads, maybe we should get them?" Try not to react like this, you need to consider these things before buying any sort of technology:

- How will the technology enhance the learning in our school?

- How will it slide seamlessly into your current curriculum? Do you need to think again?

- What will the impact be? (People will ask, especially if you've spent £20 000)

- Who will champion the technology? One person can't drive this change!

- Are you staff trained? Will they see it as just another thing to learn?

Tick all these boxes and you have a solid vision for it, then go for it!  Make sure you keep evaluating as you go, and then react to any problems or success stories.

Enjoy the technology in the classroom, it's not going away!  But, please, please think before you jump in!

Finally, I'm presenting via a Webinar on Tuesday 13th May at 4.00pm. You can register via this link - Flipped Learning Webinar

Follow me on Twitter @chriswaterworth

The Flipped Classroom: Online Feedback, Peer Assessment and Collaboration

The Flipped Classroom: Online Feedback, Peer Assessment and Collaboration

The next step in my flipped classroom is to try and find a place for children to publish work, receive feedback and then edit and improve. I experimented with EduBlogs with some success, but the whole process wasn't quick enough for the children in my class. They needed feedback quicker, they needed notifications, they needed to use their iPads and Tablets at home to share their thoughts and work without a complicated process.

Edmodo: Classroom Work Flow Solution

Up step Edmodo - Social Media for Education. This really was a game changer for my Year 3 flipped classroom.  It was named "Facebook for kids," by the children in my class and they love it.  

Edmodo is a 'work flow' solution for classrooms and it allows children to share work online, receive feedback, improve, and publish again.  

As a class teacher you have full control of the content that is published on your class space and you can be notified each time something is published (or not).  You can create notes, upload files, share links, embed videos, create polls, and store documents in an online library.  Crucially, it is all displayed in a very familiar format, a format that the children are used to seeing parents using on mobile devices - it's cool!

How have I used Edmodo in my Flipped Classroom?

When I first started flipping my classroom I would email the children videos, documents, pictures etc, ready for the next lesson - read about my flipped classroom.  I would then have to wait for the next session to find out what the children thought about the content, where they were up to and any misconceptions that they may have.  I know it was only over night, but still, I had to wait and they had to wait and sometimes they forgot!

Now I have started to embed videos, share documents and now the children are commenting on the information I am sharing, something they didn't do before. I asked the children why they didn't respond to the videos when I emailed them -  "it was too slow to send an email back," and "nobody else would have commented, there was only me in the email."  I realised that by using Edmodo, pre-learning had become a social learning experience but online.

"nobody else would have commented, there was only me in the email" 

This is a really good point that I hadn't actually contemplated. What I realised is that the children were receiving the videos, and documents, completing their flipped learning and then waiting to get to school to share their understanding, questions and misconceptions.

The difference I have observed when using Edmodo is that the children feel more compelled to comment there and then as the information is right in front of them. They don't need to open another window, the children can share easily by hitting the reply button - the work flow has been reduced.

When one child replied to the pre-learning I had posted more children replied and an online conversation about the work began.  Collaborative learning had started before they had even got to school.

Children as Publishers, Editors and Assessors.

Not only is Edmodo great for teachers sharing work, the children in my class have begun sharing their own learning. At first it began with the children sharing links to websites on William Shakespeare (our current learning adventure), but amazingly they began commenting and thanking each other for the information. 

The children were following their own curiosity and sharing their learning journey - all online.

Online Peer Assessment of Coding.

The next thing that pleased me was that the children began to ask for help from their classmates. They began posting links to their current computer programming projects from Scratch.

"How do I make the character bounce? Can you help me"

"Can you play my game, let me know what you think and suggest improvements."

"How do I change the level when I complete part of the game?"

They actually answered and posted screen shots of code to help each other - another example of using a skill I had taught them when we were coding - Read about it here, Social Coding

The children had 'Peer Assessed, Online'  without me suggesting they do it, something they naturally now do in the classroom, but this time in the virtual classroom.

I am going to pursue this method of peer assessment when the children complete their first piece of homework next week.  I am going to ask them to create a short piece of work on "How the people of Verona feel when walking the streets, now that the feud between the Montague and Capulets is growing."  The children will be able to publish in anyway they wish - write it, act and film it, podcast it, write poetry, etc. 

The only thing I will insist on is that they publish a link to their work on Edmodo and make changes to their work when people suggest them - online peer assessment.  The following week I will ask them to publish the work again for me to mark - online. I wonder what will happen?

This editing and publishing process is crucial to learning and something that can be done using an application like Edmodo.  Children could peer assess the work in the classroom, but maybe only their learning partner will have the opportunity to suggest next steps.  By publishing online, their work could be have next steps suggested by 32 people without the time constraints that the classroom brings.  They could use the time in the classroom to improve their work via the comments from their peers - a true flipped classroom.

21st Century Mobile Learning

So where could this take us? This diagram beautifully illustrates what learning could look like in the classroom. No end point, a constant opportunity to share and learn with social learning online.

We will be investing in 1:1 iPads in our school soon and I have finally found an application capable of being the 'hub' to online collaboration.  

One other beautiful thing I only found out recently, via Daniel Edwards @syded06 - 5 Essential Tips To Help Integrate iPads Into Your School.  Edmodo allows you to save the work you want to publish in your 'Edmodo Library.'   This enables the children to be working on document, say on Pages, save it to their library and then share it via an Edmodo note. Again, the workflow has been reduced - it becomes easier, which means the children will be more willing to engage in the collaborative process.  Their work is at their fingertips and there is no need to email, change formats etc.

Other options? Padlet: A Great Starting Point to Online Collaboration

We began at the start of the current academic year by using Padlet to help us to gather information about our next learning adventure.  Padlet is like an online learning wall that children can share their information, website links, and pictures in real time.

I asked the children to follow the link to the 'Online Wall' and then publish their information and questions to help me plan the next learning adventure  The link can be made public or made private - it's entirely up to you.  Edmodo could be used to do this, but I really like the mind map look to this. 

This is an example from my current Year 3s and their pre-learning over the Easter break for our upcoming Romeo and Juliet learning adventure.

I was able to take the information, website links, photographs to produce their next topic plan.  The beautiful thing about working in this way is that the children's views about what they want to learn is taken into account and planned for.

Finally, I'm presenting via a Webinar on Tuesday 13th May at 4.00pm. You can register via this link - Flipped Learning Webinar

Follow me on Twitter @chriswaterworth

Coding in the Classroom: Children as Teachers and a Social Learning Experience

Children as Teachers and a Social Learning Experience

Over the last few weeks I've been the learner, not the teacher. Watching my Year 3's get to grips with computer programming has been a real privilege and I'm a better teacher for it.  Handing control over to the children in my class has enabled them to really push themselves forward without waiting for instructions from their teacher.

Using the programming language 'Scratch' has been an instant hit throughout my classroom with children asking to use it daily.  Read about my first week of coding - First Week Coding and Flipping my Classroom

The children quickly picked up the basics of the language and ran with it, making mistakes and learning along the way.  One of the best parts of this experience is the realisation of how much social learning really happens when programming.  The children have formed 'Publishing Companies,' even named them, created logos and planned out what sort of projects they will be building in the future. 

They've done this independently, without teacher direction and are beginning to create some really advanced games and animations. 

Programming: A Social Learning Experience

Watching the children code over the last few weeks has really convinced me that coding needs to be done in teams to have the greatest impact.  The realisation of how much 'talk for learning' happens in just one short sessions convinces me that coding has massive potential for young children throughout primary school.

One of the biggest things observed is how much problem solving and mathematics is involved throughout coding, something that I've been teaching during specific mathematics sessions, but not in many other places in the curriculum. 

The children are buzzing around the classroom, helping, sharing, and working together to solve complex programming problems.  How often does this happen in the rest of the curriculum?  

The children are pushing each other on to solve more and more complex problems as their ideas for games get more and more challenging. How do we create levels? How do I put a scoreboard in? How do I make a sprite jump?  All of these problems were solved in one afternoon of coding by allowing the children to talk, interact, move around and work with each other.

Working and Sharing Online: Publishers Vs Consumers

I've blogged before about the importance of allowing our children to become publishers rather than consumers of information - Publishers Vs Consumers. 

One of the great things that Scratch allows you to do is to share your work online with the world or your friends.  The children in my class have been sharing their work via email when they are at home - copying and pasting URL's for their games to each other.  This online collaboration has enabled children to 'peer assess online.' The children can either comment online or email suggestions for improvements via email.  This method allows children to use higher order thinking skills more often in class and at home.

Video Tutorials: Flipped Learning

Earlier in the term I was talking to one of our Year 6 children who has been using Scratch at home before her class started to use it.  She had been using online video tutorials to teach herself how to code to a very good level.

She had been learning a skill at home, trying it out and then bringing to school to show her friends and teachers - something which I have encouraged our staff to start doing.

A Low Tech Approach: A Programmers Notebook

A Programmers Notebook.

Another way the children have shown initiative and independence was to create a 'Programmers Notebook.' Something I hadn't asked them to do, but turned out to be a great idea!  The children had been taking pieces of code from games or the projects already built into scratch, recording them in their reading journals and then using them in their own games.

The previous week I had shown the children how to take a screenshot of part of the screen on a macbook. Some children took this skill and used it to save snippets of code and email the screenshots to themselves to keep for another day.  I love how the children had used skills from other lessons and applied them when coding.

This has become common practice in class now, with the children sharing snippets of code via email or asking to borrow somebodies 'programmers notebook.'

Continued Professional Development: Children as Teachers

Over the past half term I have been running training sessions for our staff at school.  We have been learning how to use various applications and then ensuring that they use it in their teaching the next week.  This method of using the skill sooner rather than later has proved successful as staff had to bring something they had created to the next training session.  We covered GarageBand, iMovie and then two sessions on Scratch and programming for Key Stage One. 

Being an advocate of flipped learning, I created a few screen cast videos for the staff to watch before hand, allowing them time to try out the skills before coming to the sessions.  Here are the videos I created for the staff: 

Editing using iMovie - https://vimeo.com/87412862

Creating a Podcast - https://vimeo.com/86786476

The final sessions were based around computer programming. The first session of Scratch enabled staff to 'play' with the application in the same way as I allowed the children to do in our first session in class.  They hacked games, broke them and fixed them - although with a little more fear than the children had shown in class.  This got me thinking; could my Year 3s lead the next training session?

Children as Teachers.

So, on Monday night after school I had invited some of my children to stay behind to help their teachers get to grip with some of the more challenging features of Scratch.  The children were delighted, and so were their parents!

It could not have gone better; the children worked alongside staff, guiding them to create a simple one level game and teach them new skills to use in their class during the week.  Crucially the children were there to answer any questions the staff may have.  

The children were the experts, they knew more than me and I allowed them to lead the session because of it.  The children were empowered.

This is certainly an approach to CPD that I will be using again in the future and the children are very keen to help out again.

What was the impact of the training sessions?

We should always monitor the impact of any training we undertake in school to make sure it was really worth it.  It's early days to judge if the training sessions had an impact in the classroom, but I've already seen positive things coming out of classrooms this half term.

One of the reasons I insisted that staff used the skills in their next week of teaching was to ensure that skills were not forgotten, as they often are after any CPD due to time constraints and lack of purpose.  Finding purpose for doing something was key to the training having any impact - don't we all need that in life, a purpose for doing something?

Teachers who attended the Scratch training sessions have already completed two sessions of programming with their class and the fear of something new seems to have dissipated.  The staff have handed over control of these sessions to the children and have learned alongside them in the process - quite a powerful bit of learning. 

Something to think about for the future. A Broad and Balanced Curriculum: Can it be done through coding? 

Something I've asked myself over the last few weeks - how much of the curriculum can be taught by using coding?  Could it be a cross curricular topic used to drive learning over half a term or even a term?

Always Winter Never Christmas: Topic Based Learning

We plan in a very cross curricular way at our school and base all our learning around a common theme or topic. 

This term we chose to learn about World War II using The Chronicles of Narnia as a basis for learning. There was some amazing learning taking place as the children were making connections throughout the topic.  Could a whole topic be planned using coding as a theme?  Certainly something to think about in the future.

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